PHOTO: GEOFF TOBINSharon Hodgson paints the first colours on a traffic box at the corner of Scot St. and Joseph Howe Dr.

Local artist says beautification project a ‘great start’

Joseph Howe would be proud.

With the first sign of a warm sunny day this spring, local artist Sharon Hodgson took to the Halifax street that is the former premier`s namesake, paint brushes in hand.

Thanks to Hodgson, the traffic box that stands at the intersection of Joseph Howe Dr., and Scot St. now boasts a pair of brightly coloured tugboats.

Hodgson`s one of many local artists whose art will cover the unsightly traffic boxes at intersections in HRM this spring.

She says she’s excited to see more outdoor art throughout the city.

“We have a really industrial landscape with a lot of structures that aren’t the most beautiful things to look at, and by covering them with art… that’ll just make this place a lot more enriching to live in, and a lot more interesting.”

The second traffic box Hodgson will paint is at the intersection of Windsor St. and Kempt Rd.

She’s painting them as part of a community art project started by the city of Halifax that is aimed at beautifying the city and deterring the tagging and vandalism that these boxes are often targeted for.

Sharon Hodgson is one of several local artists who’s contributed to this mural at Maitland St. in Dartmouth. PHOTO: GEOFF TOBIN

Hodgson says it’s a great opportunity for artists looking for permission to put their work on permanent display.

“I think it’s a great start, and it also gets the artists to have more pride in the notion of them doing something in conjunction with the city, rather than just sort of doing it underground. It gets everybody on the same page.”

While the first painted traffic boxes popped up in 2003 at the interest of individual councillors, this latest project is the first time the opportunity has been offered to the entire municipality.

Kate McLennan, the city’s Community Art Facilitator, is at the head of the project.

McLennan says, “there was a response from the community saying that they really wanted more to be painted, and it would be great if more of a variety of people from the community would have an opportunity to paint them.”

She says most of the painted boxes around Halifax are part of a separate project sponsored by Aliant.

It may be difficult to tell them apart before they’re painted, but McLennan says the city has tried to bring in a variety of artists to help make their traffic boxes stand out.

“With the boxes that Aliant does, they do not want to detract from any safety issues around where their boxes are, so they want it to look pleasant, but they also want it to blend in, and so we were hoping to have an opportunity where artists could be a little bit more bold with their creativity, and create something that was eye-catching.”

A call was made in December for artists interested in the project to submit samples of their work.

Hodgson received an email about the bid, sent some samples, and sought advice from friends and neighbours about which pieces would best suit the project.

Both of Hodgson’s paintings use a vivid combination of bright, bold colours known as a Fauvis palette.

McLennan says that deterring tagging and vandalism wasn’t the only motivation behind painting the boxes, but that it is one benefit.

She says she is worried that some of the painted boxes have been tagged.

Her role within the city is to help improve communication between H.R.M and the graffiti community.

This box on Tower Rd. in Halifax is an example of the tagging on boxes throughout HRM. PHOTO: GEOFF TOBIN

“Part of that culture, unfortunately, becomes about promoting one’s self, and I think that that has some very negative effects, when you’re wanting to write your own name on things a lot, because it’s selfish,” McLennan says.

“Everyone does things that are selfish, but hopefully we can grow to learn how our selfish things can have negative effects on other people.”

McLennan says the work that graffiti artists create can be beautiful, and she wants a variety of artists to have a place for their art in the city.

Where graffiti gets harmful, she says, is when it is done without regard for private property owners.

“More people are experimenting with it at a young age,” McLennan says, “and…you get more people that aren’t really aware of those basic where-not-to-paint places are, like people’s homes, and churches, and schools, and private businesses.”

Jake Seibert was also hired to paint two of the city’s traffic boxes.

He says that painting traffic boxes is “really the best thing you can do” with them, but he understands the motivation graffiti artists have to tag the boxes.

“Part of the whole thing is being anti-authoritarian.”

Seibert says that while he isn’t a fan seeing graffiti or tagging that is offensive, he says it shows that Halifax is a youthful city.

And Hodgson agrees.

“It gives it more of an urban feel, it gives a feeling that there’s youth there, rather than just a retirement city…if you see tagging, if you see graffiti, you know that there’s young people somewhere…and young people are always a good thing.”

Hodgson and McLennan both agree permission is the bottom line, and can create a very different public reaction to a piece of work.

“When it comes down to it, the difference between graffiti and vandalism,” McLennan says, “depending on how you use the word graffiti, is permission”.

Increasing communication and understanding between artists, property owners, and the city is what McLennan strives for as Community Arts Facilitator.

On the pages of this website, you will find the perspectives of two experienced and dedicated graffiti artists who want their art form to be taken more seriously, and from one city councillor who has been let down by her efforts to reach out to the graffiti community.